'over his head... a true charlatan...' i guess that wouldn't make him ignorant in any way... anyway, don't make it sound like this is all on jk. you need good leaders and you also need good followers, which these players aren't. now they get uncle bruce and we'll see how well they do in russia. usually, and this is the bit of life wisdom i'll give you, crybabies don't win. and yeah, there's some babies on this team.
right on-and suni is just trying to save his arse after sticking with JK far too long- the players, especially those from MLS, could be heard giving a big sigh of relief- bringing unity to the team- MLS and non-MLS players- has to be priority 1- JK loved to drive a wedge between the 2 groups; bruce arena brings the quickest coaching solution and the US should offer it to him... if they havent done it already
then the 2002 WC, when bruce coached the team to the quarter finals, was just a fluke?? i know it was a long time ago, but arena has led the Galaxy to many trophies and handled the menage of world class stars with expertise and no public display of problems- he can definitely do the job of reigniting the US mens team in the hex and take them to the 2018 WC... if he is offered and wants the job
i'm quite sure he'll get through the hex, but then again jk could have done that too. even rongen, who buried jk while doing the costa rica game, was still giving the u.s. a clear path to russia. now it's true arena did a good job in '02. maybe he can do it again.
Back in 2002, the soccer world was not as tactically based as it is today. You didn't see as many coaches change up formations or philosophies game to game to take advantage of perceived weaknesses by the opponents. Some degree of predictability was fine, because the other team was as predictable too. That doesn't work now. He is a great coach from the standpoint of handling players and getting the most out of them, but trying to break down an opponent and change what his team does to exploit deficiencies by the other team? Meh.
You didn't see too many games before 2002 isn't it?... The fact that you did not see that does not mean that it wasn't there.
Sorry to be late to the party but BS comes behind family, work and travel. Charlatans prey on the ignorant, but are not ignorant themselves and anyone that understands the game and watched him coach can see he's not at the level of other high level coaches. The Mexico game where Jones and Bradley were trying to save the game (and almost did) from JK strategic blunder provided a clear glimpse of his ability. @Zoidberg quickly figured out who JK was and called accurately very early on. I'm not sure when I came to a similar conclusion, but the Donovan cut from the world cup team and the absurd volume of work in the name of fitness set off alarm bells in my mind. The bizarre personnel choices and constant habit of playing players completely out of position confirmed he was not much of a coach and his rationalizations and lack of personal accountability lead me to see what Zoidberg has stated. If you look objectively at his results, the US has accomplished less under him than any coach since the time when many of our players were college kids and not first division professionals.